About LipscombRevitalizing general education
Revitalizing general education
New first-year program for freshmen established
--G. David England
Lipscomb University will replace its required freshman composition courses this fall with a new seminar designed to help students learn university-level study skills and engage their minds in courses of specific interest as they begin their college careers.
The "Lipscomb Seminar" will feature 27 new writing- and reading-intensive courses focused on "big questions" students have as they enter Lipscomb within a course structure that appeals to students' specific interests, said Dr. Autumn Marshall, director of the program and assistant professor of nutrition.
"The main idea is to have students truly engaged in learning on the front end of their university experience," Marshall said.
"Most students have two years of general education courses to take before they declare a major and get to the classes that are really interesting to them. By putting a class at the beginning that addresses their specific interests while meeting the goals of general education, we hope to engage them as learners and show them that we, as faculty, are still learners as well," Marshall said.
All freshmen students will be required to choose one of the academically rigorous, three-credit-hour courses. One of the main goals of the seminar is to teach students how to study for college.
"There is such a gap between the way one studies for high school and the challenging courses in college. We felt like this would create a bridge to help students succeed and encourage them to think critically," Marshall said.
The courses have diverse and intriguing titles, such as "Rhythm and Race: Social Consciousness in American Popular Music," "David Lipscomb, David Letterman and the Dalai Lama," a course on character, or "Angles of World Cultures: The Influence of Geometry."
Professors were specifically chosen because their excellence in the classroom has made them popular among students. But students will not know who is teaching the course when they sign up so they will choose a course because of its subject matter and not because of who is teaching, she said.
Within the larger context of the course concepts, each course focuses on helping students explore central questions, Marshall said, including:
-- What are the liberal arts, and how can they enrich the lives of thoughtful Christians?
-- How can cultural diversity reflect and contribute to the unity found in Christ?
-- What is truth and how does it make us free?
-- What is a "Christian worldview," and what are the practical implications of applying such a worldview to real-life issues and situations?
"We want to introduce our students to the idea of 'finding your calling' in the Kingdom of God," Marshall said. "We want them to think, 'If God has given me a talent for in dietetics, or environmental science or English, how might he use those talents in his kingdom?'"
Other colleges and universities that have implemented such first-year seminars have generally reported an increase in retention -- the rate of freshmen that return for their sophomore years. But that's not the main reason Lipscomb is implementing its program, Marshall said.
"If we can engage their minds early, encourage them to take more challenging courses and find a major early that excites them, then we have done a lot of what we set out to do," Marshall said.
New first-year program for freshmen established
--G. David England
 |
|
Autumn Marshall |
The "Lipscomb Seminar" will feature 27 new writing- and reading-intensive courses focused on "big questions" students have as they enter Lipscomb within a course structure that appeals to students' specific interests, said Dr. Autumn Marshall, director of the program and assistant professor of nutrition.
"The main idea is to have students truly engaged in learning on the front end of their university experience," Marshall said.
"Most students have two years of general education courses to take before they declare a major and get to the classes that are really interesting to them. By putting a class at the beginning that addresses their specific interests while meeting the goals of general education, we hope to engage them as learners and show them that we, as faculty, are still learners as well," Marshall said.
All freshmen students will be required to choose one of the academically rigorous, three-credit-hour courses. One of the main goals of the seminar is to teach students how to study for college.
"There is such a gap between the way one studies for high school and the challenging courses in college. We felt like this would create a bridge to help students succeed and encourage them to think critically," Marshall said.
The courses have diverse and intriguing titles, such as "Rhythm and Race: Social Consciousness in American Popular Music," "David Lipscomb, David Letterman and the Dalai Lama," a course on character, or "Angles of World Cultures: The Influence of Geometry."
Professors were specifically chosen because their excellence in the classroom has made them popular among students. But students will not know who is teaching the course when they sign up so they will choose a course because of its subject matter and not because of who is teaching, she said.
Within the larger context of the course concepts, each course focuses on helping students explore central questions, Marshall said, including:
-- What are the liberal arts, and how can they enrich the lives of thoughtful Christians?
-- How can cultural diversity reflect and contribute to the unity found in Christ?
-- What is truth and how does it make us free?
-- What is a "Christian worldview," and what are the practical implications of applying such a worldview to real-life issues and situations?
"We want to introduce our students to the idea of 'finding your calling' in the Kingdom of God," Marshall said. "We want them to think, 'If God has given me a talent for in dietetics, or environmental science or English, how might he use those talents in his kingdom?'"
Other colleges and universities that have implemented such first-year seminars have generally reported an increase in retention -- the rate of freshmen that return for their sophomore years. But that's not the main reason Lipscomb is implementing its program, Marshall said.
"If we can engage their minds early, encourage them to take more challenging courses and find a major early that excites them, then we have done a lot of what we set out to do," Marshall said.
